1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to an onboard apparatus and the like to be mounted on vehicles such as personal vehicles and business vehicles, and more particularly, to an onboard apparatus and the like to be mounted on the vehicle in the manufacturing process.
2. Description of the Related Art
The movement to aim at the improvement of assembly performance in manufacturing process and lowering in cost by modulizing parts forming a vehicle, such as doors and an instrument panel, has becoming remarkable. Also the techniques to modulize onboard apparatuses such as audio systems, air conditioners and navigation systems have been provided (see Japanese Patent Application Laid-open No. 10-275044 (p. 2) and Japanese Patent Application Laid-open No. 10-278703 (p. 2)).
In the case where a navigation system is modulized, the navigation system is taken in an instrument panel. Therefore, the external appearance and the dimension are standardized similarly to the present audio systems. Also in the case where the navigation system is modulized, it is expected that the required function and display design are different depending on the kind of the vehicle on which it is mounted (for example, high-class vehicle or economy vehicle). More particularly, since the display part (screen) of the navigation system is large as 6.5-8 inches, it has a large effect on the design of an instrument panel, that is, the atmosphere of the interior of the vehicle. Therefore, it can be considered to prepare a dedicated navigation system having a different display design for each vehicle type.
However, to prepare a dedicated navigation system for each vehicle type, the derivative models of the navigation system must be prepared by the number of vehicle types; it causes a complexity in the manufacturing process. Also, there is a problem that preparing a derivative model for each vehicle type increases the costs of design and manufacturing management and stock management.